Instrumentation
3(picc).2(corA).3(bcl).2 / 4.3.3.1 / timp+3perc / hp / pno(cel) / strings / SATB choir
Separate piccolo, 2 flutes; oboe and separate English horn; 2 B-flat clarinets and separate B-flat bass clarinet; 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba; timpani and 3 percussionists; harp; piano doubling celesta; SATB choir; strings.
The published score recommends amplifying the choir as necessary to balance with the orchestra.
Text
Steven Erikson, from The Devil Delivered.
Listen
Scores & Performance Materials
Program Note
A Parable for End Times is a setting of an excerpt from Canadian author Steven Erikson’s novella “The Devil Delivered”. The story depicts a near-future Earth ravaged by nuclear fallout, depleted natural resources, and an ozone hole the size of the Great Plains. In this dystopia, a young boy’s painfully naive question – “what did I do wrong” – is met with a scathing diatribe on humanity’s complicity in its own planet’s destruction, resulting from a myopic preoccupation with ephemeral comforts and exploitative indulgence.
This piece is my response to how timely and prescient Erikson’s words feel in the current cultural landscape.
Commission and premiere
Commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. Premiered January 27, 2018 at the Winnipeg New Music Festival by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Horizon choir, Alexander Mickelthwate conducting.
Press
“Most impressively, the work’s sense of pacing through harmonic progression relentlessly pulls the audience further into dystopia…”